Video games to encourage participation and social commitment

Abstract

This article presents the results of an empirical study based on the analysis of a sample of ten video games created to encourage participation and social commitment. The aspects discussed are poverty, drug addiction, autism, violence gender, migration, human rights, politics, climate change, cybercrime or cyberbullying. After establishing and applying the sample selection criteria, and following the content analysis methodology, the guide proposed in López-Gómez (2018) has been adapted to study seven aspects that, in the opinion of the authors, are fundamental for the achievement of the objective of awareness proposed for each game. These seven aspects are, the adaptation to the target audience, the degree of fulfillment of its didactic intentionality, the promotion of collaboration, the adequacy of the content with respect to its purpose, the motivating nature, its ludic appeal and its aesthetic appeal. After establishing the quantitative analysis of the results, the discussion and conclusions of this study reflect on the degree of achievement of these aspects in order to provide possible clues on the effectiveness of this type of video games when used as awareness tools.